Eddie Hearn says Fury vs. Usyk not happening in Saudi Arabia because Tyson needs Anthony Joshua

By Boxing News - 02/17/2023 - Comments

By Brian Webber: Eddie Hearn says Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk fight isn’t happening in Saudi Arabia and WON’T happen in the UK because Tyson needs Anthony Joshua for him to get the money he wants to fight in the Middle East.

The biggest obstacle for Fury to getting the money he wants/needs is his stubborn pride, which is preventing him from taking the Joshua fight. Fury wants to hurt Joshua in return for him ignoring his inane deadlines last November.

Fury’s desire for payback is petty,  self-defeating, and utterly childish. Without Fury growing up a little and acknowledging that he’s his own worst enemy, he will miss out on the payday that he craves from the Saudis.

Without Joshua involved, the Saudis aren’t going to pay Fury the kind of money that he’s looking to get for his next fight. He certainly won’t get that kind of money fighting Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) at Wembley Stadium in London, says Hearn, and that’s why the fight won’t happen.

“Yeah, if the fights not happening in Saudi Arabia because Anthony Joshua is not in it,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV when asked his thoughts of the still un-signed Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk fight now targeted for Wembley Stadium in London, England rather than Saudi Arabia.

“The fights [Fury-Usyk] not big enough. The fights not big enough for the type of money that Fury wants because it doesn’t involve Anthony Joshua.

“No, but the only guy that can command that kind of money,” Hearn said when asked if Anthony Joshua is the only face in Saudi Arabia. “But hopefully, we can make Tyson Fury against Anthony Joshua, and then Tyson will get the numbers he wants. Possibly, they’ll [Saudis] definitely want to pay the money,” said Hearn when asked if he believes Fury vs. Joshua will take place in Saudi Arabia.

Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs) won’t get the money he wants fighting in the UK in a match that could prove to be a problematic chess match against Usyk.

That fight would be considerably more complex for the slow, lumbering fighter that Fury has become as he’s aged in the last few years, and he’s going to want to get paid considerably more than he did in his recent fights against the low-level competition in Derek Chisora and Dillian Whyte.